Means for identifying metal castings.



No. 555,393. Patented Aug. 7, I900.;

R. E. COLEMAN. MEANS FDR IDENTIFYING METAL CASTINGS.

(Application filed Feb. 1, 1900.)

(No Model.)

Nrrnn STATES PATENT Crrrcn.

RICHARD E. COLEMAN, OF BUFFALO, NEIV YORK, ASSIGNOR OF ONE-HALF TO HERBERT H. HEWITT, OF SAME PLACE.

MEANS FOR IDENTIFYING METAL CASTINGS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 655,893, dated August '7, 1900. Application filed February 1, 1900. Serial No. 3,589. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, RICHARD E. COLEMAN, a resident of the city of Buffalo, in the county of Erie, State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Means for Identifying Metal Castings, of which the followingis a full, clear, and exact description, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, forming a part of this specification.

This invention has for its object to provide a simple, cheap, and effective means for the identification of cast-metal articles-such as car-wheels, car-couplers, water-pipe sections, and many otherlike articles of cast-iron, steel, or the likethat require special and individual marks for identification.

The invention may be found particularly advantageous for the marking of castings where each casting is to have an individual mark in order to describe some peculiarity as to size, location, or the like, as such individual identification cannot be economically accomplished in the process of casting, and marking by stencils or the like is objectionable because wanting in durability and for other reasons. This object of invention I have accomplished (and herein the invention resides) by forming each metal casting with a recess having a dovetailed or overhanging wall that serves to retain within the recess a plate or disk of relatively-soft metal, such as lead or the like, upon which plate or disk the marks whereby the casting is to be identified can be readily made.

In the accompanying drawings my invention is shown as applied in connection with a cast-metal car-wheel; but it is manifest that the invention is applicable to a wide range of metal castings that require individual identification.

Figure l is a view in side elevation showing a carwheel embodying my invention. Fig. 2 is a View in cross-section, upon an enlarged scale, on line 2 2 of Fig. 1. Fig. 3 is a view similar to Fig. 2, but showing a slightlymoditied form of the invention. Fig. I is a partial view of Fig. 3 in side elevation.

A designates the cast-metal body, within which is formed a recess a, this recess having an overhanging or dovetailed wall a. lVithin the recess a is set a plateB, preferably of lead or like relatively-soft metal, the

plate being retained within the recess by the overhanging wall a of the recess. The outer surface of the plate B being soft can be readily marked with numbers, initials, or the like in order to identify the individual casting, this marking being commonly effected by numbering-dies of hard metal that readily indent the relatively-soft plate or disk B. Preferably the plate B will be formed of castlead or like soft metal of a size permitting it to be easily inserted within the recess a, the edges of the plate 13 being straight or but slightly inclined, and after the plate 13' has been thus inserted in the recess a the plate will be expanded by peening until its edge is firmly interlocked with the overhanging Wall of the recess a. The plates B may be numbered either before or after they have been fastened within the recess of the casting A. The soft-metal plate may be smoothed down to the surface of the casting and does not disfigure or mar the appearance of thecasting. If it becomes desirable to change the identifying-marks of the casting, the plate can be withdrawn and a new plate inserted or the marks of the plate can be obliterated by peening, after which new marks may be substituted for the old. 7

In Figs. 1 and 2 of the drawings the overhanging wall a is shown as raised above the body of the casting; but obviously this is not essential, as the outer face of the wall may be flush with the face of the casting, as shown in Fig. 3.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

1. An identifying device for metal castings, comprising an inscription plate of soft metal suitably secured within a recess cast in the .body of the metal and adapted to beinscribed with suitable identifying-markings.

2. Anidentifyingdeviceformetal castings, comprising an inscription-plate of soft, noncorrosive metal suitably secured within a shallow recess cast in the body of the metaland adapted to be inscribed with suitable identifying-markin gs.

RICHARD E. COLEMAN.

"Witnesses:

T. H. J ONES, LOUIS O. llIOODY. 

